Big Nasty wins major contract with AkzoNobel

A tech start-up has signed a major contract with a multinational chemicals company to develop an innovative digital sales platform.

Big Nasty Studios pitched to win a contract to work with paint and performance coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel NV to design an app to showcase the company’s specialty chemicals used to prevent fouling on boats and marine structures.

Big Nasty Studios was formed with the help of a DigitalCity Fellowship and is based in Teesside Launchpad, the University’s start-up incubator.

Using games technology it has developed Project Viz, a visualisation app used as a sales tool which can demonstrate products to customers as they would be operated in real life.

The app allows users to zoom, pan and rotate the products and swipe between different product skins to showcase different colours and materials.

Big Nasty are adapting this technology to develop the app for AkzoNobel and showcase technical information in an easy-to-access visual format.

The company was founded in 2016 by Teesside graduates Josh Bamforth, Adam Davies and Jack Fletcher.

Creative director Josh said: “Our apps work to make it easier for sales people to explain difficult concepts and showcase different types of products more easily.

“We tailor them to the specifications of the client so each business gets something that is exactly what they need.

“It’s great to think that a company with such a high reputation as AkzoNobel was suitably impressed with our work and so we’re delighted to have won this contract with them.”

AkzoNobel produces speciality chemicals for industry and consumers worldwide. It is based in the Netherlands with factories around the world, including Gateshead.

Mo Chowdhury, a technologist in AkzoNobel’s transformative research team, said: “The collaboration with Big Nasty will help convey multifaceted information into a simpler, more visual format for our end use customers.

“They have managed to take our complex requirements and provide a bespoke solution whilst understanding our needs and what benefits they can carry to our customers.

“One of the benefits we are seeing working with Big Nasty is the time and effort they have dedicated early on from the initial scoping stage and their availability throughout the course of the project.”

Laura Woods, director of The Forge, Teesside University’s business hub, said: “Big Nasty are a fantastic example of a young business using the latest technology to provide an innovative service to North East companies.

“We are delighted to have been able to support them and are looking forward to seeing the results of their collaboration with AkzoNobel.”